Arch is very stable, and highly customizable linux distro. You will like it if you want to build your OS up from scratch.

Prepare partition

You can use gparted from Ubuntu Live CD or another GUI tool to create root, home, and swap partitions. Or you can follow the following instruction.

Login as root.

# cgdisk /dev/sda

Create root partition

• Hit New -> Enter
• First Sector -> Enter
• Size in Sector -> 15GB -> Enter
• Hex Code of GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300) -> Enter
• Enter partition name – > Enter
• Now you will see a 15GB partition has been created.

Create swap partition

Use keyboard and select Free Space. If your RAM is 2GB, then you need 4GB or swap space. Swap space is extra memory for when you suspend your computer.

1. Hit New -> Enter
2. First Sector ->
3. Size in Sector -> 4GB -> Enter
4. Hex Code of GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300) -> Enter
5. Enter partition name – > swap

Swap has been created.

Creating home partition

Use keyboard and select Free Space

1. Hit New -> Enter
2. First Sector -> Enter
3. Size in Sector -> 40GB -> Enter
4. Hex Code of GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300) -> Enter
5. Enter partition name – > home -> Enter

Once ok select ‘Write‘. Type ‘yes‘ if you are sure, and then select ‘Quit‘.

Check the structure of partition by running this command:

# lsblk

You will see your hard-disk structure as follows:

sda1 – root

sda2 – swap

sda3 – home

Create file system

Format root and home

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3 

Format swap space

# mkswap /dev/sda2  
# swapon /dev/sda2

Double-check your format

# lsblk /dev/sda

Install & Configure Base System

Mount drives

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/home
# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home

Install base packages

# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel

Configure Mounting

# genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Check if all looks good:

# nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Configure System

Log as root in the partition. This is a very important step that you install stuff on your newly created parition and not in the Live CD OS which will be removed when you log out.

# arch-chroot /mnt

Setup Locale

# nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment this:  en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8

# locale-gen
# echo LANG=en_AU.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# export LANG=en_AU.UTF-8

Set up timezone

# ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Melbourne> /etc/localtime

You must adjust the country and city according to yours.

Set up Clock

# hwclock --systohc --utc

Prepare Users

Set your root password:

# passwd

Add a sudoer user. Change the last word with your username:

# useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash linuxcircle
# passwd linuxcircle

Install Sudo

# pacman -S sudo
# pacman -Ss sudo
# EDITOR=nano visudo

Ucomment this line:

%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Install Bootloader

# pacman -S grub
# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
# pacman -S os-prober
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
# pacman -S os-prober

Setup Network

If you are running eth cable.

# systemctl enable dhcpcd.service
# systemctl start dhcpcd.service

If you are running wifi

# pacman -S wireless_tools wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond dialog
# wifi-menu

Chose your wifi access point, then enable it on boot.

# systemctl enable network-wireless@wlan0.service
# systemctl start network-wireless@wlan0.service

 

Final Steps

# exit

Unmount the root, home and reboot the system:

# umount -R /mnt 
# reboot

Tags: archarchlinuxdistro